The public-sector higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide are experiencing financial challenges owing to budgetary cuts, including in the United States (US), the United Kingdom and Europe, following the Covid pandemic and the consequent economic recession.
The HEIs in emerging markets, such as Pakistan, have been particularly hit hard due to the federal government’s massive budget cuts, a process which began in 2017 and continues through 2022. For example, the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) recurring budget was Rs63.1 billion in 2017-18, Rs65.02bn in 2018-19, Rs64.1bn in 2019-20, and, again, Rs64.1 billion in 2020-21.
Even the most recent allocation of Rs65bn for higher education in the 2022-23 budget does not seem to offer relief to the country’s financially vulnerable HEIs.
The problematic situation of Pakistan’s public-sector HEIs calls for prompt action to protect the country’s future of higher education and to save its 130 million young from becoming a burden, as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has warned by asking, “will Pakistan’s youth be the country’s biggest asset — or the biggest liability — in the years to come?”
In fact, state financing has been steadily declining, and the landscape of public HEIs has significantly changed over the years. Private donations and funding have become much more critical.
The institutions in the US and other Western countries had long anticipated this radical shift, and, as a result, embraced business and marketing strategies to forge lasting relationships with alumni and engage them more effectively.
Through their financial and non-financial support, the alumni have emerged as the primary contributors in this regard. But public HEIs in Pakistan have not leveraged alumni engagement as an alternative source of revenue to offset the steady loss in government support.
It is imperative that the heads and vice-chancellors of public-sector HEIs in Pakistan form strategic teams that will use proactive and entrepreneurial approaches to understand and evaluate how recent societal, technological, cultural and economic changes, like the pandemic, will affect the health of their institutions.
To gradually reduce their reliance on state support and ensure long-term sustainability, they need to forge long-lasting ties with their stakeholders, particularly the alumni who are settled both locally and internationally.
DR NABEEL NISAR
SUKKUR
